Slattery, who most recently served on the Joint Staff as Division Chief, Cyber Policy Division in the J5 Global Policy and Partnerships Directorate, takes the reins of NCDOC from Heritage, who will be assigned to the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) in Silicon Valley, California.

As the presiding officer and guest speaker, Rear Adm. Timothy White, the commander of Cyber National Mission Force at U.S. Cyber Command presented Heritage with the Legion of Merit Award and commented on his exceptional work and leadership.

“Capt. Heritage is a pathfinder, groundbreaker in every way. He's always challenging himself and those he’s a teammate of to do better," White said. From the time Sean took the reins here in Suffolk, he set out to build a high-performance organization, an organization that does what’s right for the right reasons, an organization that responds to our nation’s needs operating over-the-horizon and sustaining the capability to generate striking power in defense of our nation, an organization that adjusts to change on its own with its eye on the future even as it focuses on the mission at hand, a command that is ever vigilant.”

Heritage accepted the award and began his speech by surprising Mr. Rob Boshonek with a Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

Boshonek served as Strategic and Technical Director at Commander Task Group 1020.1 and NCDOC from November 2008 to August 2017.

Heritage describing the last two years as “Chapter 6” in the NCDOC story, and he acknowledged the remarkable things that enabled outcomes throughout his tour.

“The theme for this chapter has been that of creativity, critical thinking, and collective ownership… It is all about outcomes. And it is the process that generates the outcomes. It is the environment that informs the processes. And it is the people who shape the environment,” Heritage said. “My role here was not to generate outcomes, nor was it to dictate processes. My role was to attract talent, inspire teammates, and foster a culture where even, and at times especially, our most junior teammates were the ones generating those outcomes.”

Slattery is now the seventh commanding officer selected to command NCDOC, which serves as the Navy’s Cyber Security Service Provider (CSSP) and enables global power projection through proactive network defense.

“Teammates, I will assure you that there will be no decrease in positivity, energy, engagement, and focus. Buckle Up! Chapter 7 is going to be even more amazing,” Heritage said.

As a cryptologic surface warfare officer, Slattery is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has served in a diverse range of Navy assignments at sea and ashore to include USS BATAAN (LHD 5) as a Plankowner, and deployed in support of Operation Full Provider in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. She commanded Navy Information Operations Command Bahrain from 2012 to 2014, providing Information Warfare direct support to CENTCOM combat operations and to Commander 5th Fleet in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Maritime Security Operations in the NAVCENT area of responsibility.

“I wish to clearly articulate that there is no other command I wish to lead, no other place I wish to be than right here today in front of this team,” Slattery said. “And when I stand before this much talent, a command and Task Force of such intensity I can’t help but get excited about our future together.”

The change of command ceremony did not end like many traditional ceremonies; instead it turned into a celebration. The celebration included a slideshow and videos of sailors and civilians depicting operational milestones and team accomplishments, growth, and team building.

U.S. Fleet Cyber Command serves as the Navy component command to U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Cyber Command, and the Navy’s Service Cryptologic Component commander under the National Security Agency/Central Security Service. Fleet Cyber Command also reports directly to the Chief of Naval Operations as an Echelon II command.

U.S. 10th Fleet is the operational arm of Fleet Cyber Command and executes its mission through a task force structure similar to other warfare commanders. In this role, C10F provides operational direction through its Maritime Operations Center located at Fort George Meade Md., executing command and control over assigned forces in support of Navy or joint missions in cyber/networks, information operations, electronic warfare, cryptologic/signals intelligence and space.

CHIPS is an official U.S. Navy website sponsored by the Department of the Navy (DON)
Chief Information Officer, the Department of Defense Enterprise Software Initiative
(ESI) and the DON's ESI Software Product Manager Team at Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Center Pacific.